Apparatus for packing or wrapping articles



April 21, 1 970 E. N'. COLES 5 APPARATUS FOR PACKING OR WRAPPING ARTICLES Original Filed July 6, 1964 3 Sheets-Shet 1 INVENTOR ERIC NEVfLLE COLES ATTORNEY A ril 21,1970 W E.N.COLES 3,507,094

APPARATUS ,FOR PACKING on WRAPPING ARTICLES Original Filed July 6, 1964 s Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR ERIC NE ILLE COLES ATTORNEY April 21, 1970 E. N. COLES 3,507,094"

I APPARATUS FOR PACKINGOR WRAPPING ARTICLES Original Filed July 6. 1964 s Sheets -She et s FIG.3.

- INVENTOR ERIC EVILLE COLES ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,507,094 APPARATUS FOR PACKING OR WRAPPING ARTICLES Eric Neville Coles, 4 Balmoral Gardens, London W. 13, England Continuation of application Ser. No. 380,394, July 6, 1964. This application July 7, 1967, Ser. No. 651,919

Int. Cl. B65b 1/02 US. Cl. 53183 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to an apparatus for packing or wrapping articles and is a continuation of the invention set forth in application Ser. No. 380,394 filed July 6, 1964, now abandoned.

An object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which is particularly useful for wrapping fragile articles of a generally conical shape, e.g. sweetmeats, but is also useful for wrapping fragile or non-fragile articles of other shapes. The apparatus can be used to Wrap articles individually or can be used to wrap together a plurality of articles.

According to the invention, there is provided a packaging apparatus comprising a horizontal hollow rotatable severing drum having apertures formed in the peripheral wall thereof, means for reducing the pressure within said severing drum, means for feeding a continuous packaging web from a supply thereof to the periphery of said drum whereby said web is releasably retained on said drum by the reduced pressure therein, means for severing said web into predetermined lengths on said severing drum, a rotatable turret, a plurality of former regularly circumferentially spaced on said turret, means for applying base members to the ends of successive of said formers means for releasably retaining said base members on said formers, means for transferring successive of said several web lengths from said severing drum to successive of said base carrying formers, means for shaping and sealing said web lengths about said respective formers to produce corresponding bags open at their inner ends and closed at the ends adjacent to said base members, a conveyor, means for transferring said open topped bags in upright positions spaced along said conveyor, loading means for introducing a material to be packaged into said open topped bags while carried by said conveyor, and means for thereafter successively closing the open tops of said bags.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention and,

FIGURES 2 and 3 are respectively an elevation and end view of part of the same machine.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, articles of a generally conical shape e.g. sweetmeats, are wrapped in a film of regenerated cellulose or other heat sealable wrapping material fed as continuous strips from a supply reel 1. The strips of films are passed from the reel 1 over guide rollers 2 and between a pair of draw rollers 3 which are rotatable to draw the films from the reel.

After passing through the draw rollers 3, the films are passed between tensioning rollers 4 and then round a 3,507,094 Patented Apr. 21, 1970 ice severance conveyor in the form of an intermittently rotatable drum 5. The periphery of this drum 5 is provided with a plurality of suction apertures 6 leading to the interior of the drum which is in turn connected to a source of suction through a hollow shaft 7 of the drum. The film is held on the surface of the drum by suction, assisted by a resilient pressure pad (not shown). A knife 8 acts on the film while they are on the drum 5 in order to cut up the film into separate pieces, each intended to form an individual wrapper.

A forming conveyor 9, also in the form of a drum, is intermittently rotatable adjacent the severance conveyor drum 5. This forming conveyor drum 9 is provided with a plurality of formers 10 which are arranged to project from one side of the drum and are conveniently of substantially square or rectangular cross-section. Each of these formers 10 is arranged to pass in turn through a position (called a transfer position) at which it can receive one of the separate pieces of film from the severance conveyor 5.

A piece C of card or other stiffening material intended to form the base of the wrapper is placed on the free end of each former 10 before it arrives at the transfer position. Each base piece C is cut from a continuous strip supplied from a reel and has a shape corresponding to the cross-section of the formers. The base pieces C are supplied to the formers 10 by means of a base-material supply conveyor 11.

The ends of the formers are provided with suction apertures 10b with a source of suction to enable the base pieces C to be retained in position on the formers 10.

Each former 10 receives a piece of film from the severance drum 5 at the position marked X in FIGURE 2. The piece of film is folded around three sides of the former by a U-shaped transfer member 6a, advanced by a pusher 6b, the free ends of the U-shaped piece bridging the gap betwen the former 10 and a block 12 and being retained on the block 12 by grippers 12d. A swan neck 12 is caused by cam means (not visible) to swing about a pivot 30 so that its end 31 presses the upper end or bridging portion of film down on to the side of the former 10. The folded film is held in position by grippers 12a. The grippers are pivoted and spring loaded into engagement with the former 10. However, as each former 10 approaches the position X, the grippers 1211 are opened by movement of a plunger 32 towards the drum 5 such movement being effected by cam means not visible. The plunger 32 presses against an extension 33 on each gripper to move the gripper to an open position against the spring loading. When the plunger 32 moves in the opposite direction under this action of the cam the gripper will move about the pivot to the closed position, following behind the swan neck 12. During rotation of the forming conveyor, the lower bridging portion of film is folded on to the former 10 to overlap the portion folded by the swan neck 12 by stationary ramp 34. Each former then passes a heat sealing or crimp-sealing device or other device 12e to seal the overlapping portions of the film together. At'

this stage, the partly former wrapper has portions projecting beyond the free end of the former. A rotatable tucker finger 12b is provided adjacent the forming conveyor in such a position that as the conveyor rotates the trailing and forward projecting portions are respectively folded by the rotatable finger 12b and a fixed finger 12c thereby to form the base of the wrapper after which the formers pass another sealing device (not visible in the drawings) to secure these portions. The rotatable finger 12b is caused to rotate by a chain drive 35 through intermediate gearing not visible to fold the trailing portion of film on to the former 10. After this operation is completed, the former passes between fixed ramps (not.

visible) to fold side-projecting portions of film on to the former. This sequence of operations forms on each former a bag W with an open end and rectangular base. Continued rotation of the forming conveyor 9 brings each former 10 to an ejecting position at which one of a plurality of push rods 10a or other means carried by the formers is operable for sliding the partly formed wrapper off the former 10 and depositing it, open end outermost, on the upwardly moving run of an endless chain conveyor 13 herein called the loading conveyor. Spring-loaded and pivoted grippers 14 are provided for holding the wrapper in position, whilst travelling on the loading conveyor 13. As shown on the drawings these grippers are arranged in pairs and open against the spring loading as the partly formed wrappers are deposited on the conveyor 13.

A charging conveyor 15 in the form of a rotatable substantially horizontal disc or turntable has a plurality of apertures 150 so arranged that each of them in turn registers with a feed trap 16 above the loading conveyor 13. The remainder of the apertures are open, but crescentshaped support members 15b travel with the conveyor 15 and prevent the articles A falling through the apertures 15a while allowing fragments broken off the articles A to fall through the apertures. This arrangement also prevents scufiing of the articles by holding them away from a fixed base 150 of the conveyor. The articles to be wrapped are placed in these apertures. The movement of the charging and loading conveyor 13 and 15 is so timed that the open end of each wrapper arrives beneath the feed trap 16 whenever an aperture arrives above the trap. At this instant, the crescent-shaped members 15b are displaced to open the apertures and the trap is automatically opened so that an article in the registering aperture 15a falls into the wrapper W.

A detector device can be provided so that if an aperture without an article therein arrives at the feed trap, a warning signal is transmitted.

The loading conveyor 13 then carries the filled wrappers through a device 17 for folding and sealing the tops of the wrappers after which they are removed from the conveyor in any suitable way.

If desired, a tear tape T can be supplied from a supply reel 18 to the film before it passes between the draw rollers 3.

If the film has thereon any printed matter requiring registration, it can be arranged to pass an electronic scanning head 19 before it arrives at the draw rollers 3. This scanning head 19 is associated with means for controlling the draw rollers so as to ensure that the printed matter is correctly positioned or registered before the film is supplied to the formers.

Although the apparatus has been described for using with heat sealable material, it will be appreciated that other materials can be used if desired, in which case alternative sealing means may have to be provided.

In a modification of the invention, the film or other material can be fed to the machine in the form of pre-cut pieces.

In a further modification, the machines can be arranged to produce wrappers with a circular or other shaped base.

What is claimed is:

1. A packing apparatus comprising a horizontal hollow rotatable severing drum having apertures formed in the'peripheral wall thereof, means for reducing the pressure within said severing drum, means for feeding a continuous packaging web from a supply thereof to the pe riphery of said drum whereby said web is releasably retained on said drum by the reduced pressure therein, means of severing said web into predetermined lengths on said severing drum, a rotatable turret, a plurality of formers regularly circumferentially spaced on said turret, means for applying base members to the ends of successive of said formers, means for releasably retaining said base members on said formers, means for transferring successive of said severed web lengths from said severing drum to successive of said base carrying formers, means for shaping and sealing said web lengths about said respective formers to produce corresponding bags Open at their inner ends and closed at the ends adjacent to said base members, a conveyor, means for transferring said open topped bags in upright positions spaced along said I conveyor, loading means for introducing a material to be packaged into said open topped bags while carried by said conveyor, and means for thereafter successively closing the open tops of said bags.

2.. The packaging apparatus of claim 1 wherein said turret is rotatable about an axis parallel to the axis of rotation of said severing drum and said formers project from said turret parallel to the axis of rotation thereof and are successively transported by said turret to a position adjacent to said severing drum.

3. The packaging apparatus of claim 1, wherein said base member retaining means comprises suction apertures positioned in the end walls of the formers, and means con- FOREIGN PATENTS 818,470 10/1951 Germany.

THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner E. F. DESMOND, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 93-55.1 

